And Later Say it's All Our Fault
by ImaPseudonym
Summary: Foreman/Chase: 50 word prompts telling one story.  slash


Title: And Later Say it's All Our Fault

Author: Ima Pseudonym

Rating: R at worst (but closer to PG13)

Summary: Fifty word prompt, that I used for Foreman/Chase. The words were collected (and numbered) at random, and the story it creates is in chronological order.

Disclaimer: The title is taken from Regina Spektor's 'Us'.

Notes: All of this takes place in some AU existence around seasons two or three. Pretend season four and on never existed. (I'm already well-practiced at that.) So… In this, Chase is still pretty, and Foreman- Well, he's still Foreman.

Finally, this has not been beta'd, except by myself, and I never restricted myself to one or two sentences. Some prompts may be one sentence, and some could be four or five.

1. Exhausted

They'd been running tests all night, and Foreman could see by the way Chase held himself (still so shattered after being ridiculed by House) that his coworker was exhausted.

2. Tradition

Foreman wasn't one to stand on the idea of traditions, but when he looked across the peanut shell-littered table to a drunkenly grinning Chase he decided that as far as traditions went, this one wasn't so bad.

3. Mail

At first nobody paid any attention when Chase opened up a thick envelope that had been delivered, care of Princeton Plainsboro. But it didn't take long for Foreman to realize (by the obvious tears that wouldn't form) that Rowan Chase's will was contained therein.

4. Bitch

There had been no doubt in Foreman's mind, when Chase and Cameron started dating, that the whole incident would end in heartache; he'd only been wrong about whose heart would be broken. His perception of Chase wasn't the only one to shift.

5. Sentence

Eric Foreman remembered the dingy courtroom; the last place his brother hadn't been 'proven guilty' and he can't help but draw ties, in the bank lobby, when he sees his miserable coworker realize there's no way out.

6. Free

The 'Incident' lasted almost an entire day while police tried to negotiate in exchange for hostages. Their captors agreed to one, and told Foreman to get out, so it came as a surprise to everyone (Foreman included) when he shoved Chase forward instead.

7. Fade

Long after House has stopped taking joy in taunting his male fellows about the Incident, Foreman sees Chase watching him nervously, like he might disappear otherwise.

8. Chalk

The baseball field is overdue to be mowed, but the chalk is down fresh, and Foreman can't help but stare, when Chase bends to brush it from the cuff of his too-tight jeans.

9. Blurred

Somewhere between fourteen straight hours of work, and a tired collision in the abandoned doctor's lounge, the line between long-term coworker and one-night stand becomes blurred.

10. Bells

Foreman is anxiously bouncing his foot, well into his third coffee, when the bells above the door announce that he isn't being stood up, after all.

11. Delusion

It's optimistic to the point of nonsensical to assume that this is going to last, or end in any way resembling well, but Foreman has finally realized: Delusional fantasy is better than any certain reality.

12. Romance

The arrangement was for no-strings attached, no-nonsense satisfaction. So when Chase finds a long-stemmed rose in his secured locker, he wants to frown, but can't force it past his smile.

13. Embarrassed

Foreman knew Chase wanted something in particular; it was obvious by the way his blush spread from his cheeks, and down his throat, to where Foreman couldn't see but wanted to follow with hands and lips and teeth. And when Chase pushed a packet of lube into his busy hands, Foreman felt his face heat up, as well.

14. Soliloquy

Foreman anticipated it, after Chase went one-on-one with the Heavyweight Champion of Snark (formally known as House). Still, he can't help but wonder, as Chase continues his uninterrupted rant about their boss, how badly Chase needed to do just this when there was no one to listen.

15. Alone

It's been two weeks since Chase ended it, three weeks since Foreman thought it should end, and thirteen days since they both realized what poor company solitude makes.

16. Colorless

Chase watched the cars go by, with his cheek pressed against the frozen glass of his barred window. It was dry and bright for January, but the sun only bleached everything to grey and white

17. Missing

Foreman had spent years building a routine that he completed whether tired or sick or preoccupied. So when the milk went sour, sitting on the kitchen table, he realized that maybe he was missing something essential between waking up, and having breakfast.

18. Cancer

When Chase arrives at PPTH with a familiar oncologist one morning, smiling, and gently bumping shoulders, Foreman feels a kind of sickening burning in his chest that spreads and devours like cancer.

19. Tied

Chase wasn't nearly drunk enough to excuse the way he, forcibly bound to Foreman's bed, only arched 'towards' his abductor.

20. Ink

Draped over Foreman, of his own free will, Chase admired his permanent marker handwork. His heart tripped nervously at the thought of writing his name, so instead he drew a kangaroo. Foreman had no such inhibitions and most of Chase's body was intricately marked and claimed.

21. Overdose

When House finally swallows too many pills, Chase prays that his boss survives with genuine tears. Foreman prays that House will survive, because it scares him to see Chase pray.

22. Before

Before House is released from Intensive Care, he spontaneously informs Foreman that 'Wombat Play Time' is for 'off the clock' only… Unless he can watch. Foreman doesn't know if he was serious or not.

23. Clouds

Chase sits on Foreman's marble counter, wearing nothing but Foreman's designer shirt, drinking Foreman's premium blend coffee, and thinks about Carly Simon as milk swirls in his mug.

24. Solid

Foreman insists on dragging Chase to meet all his friends, and Chase grits his teeth and does so because that's what people do when they're in a steady relationship: They move things to the next level. But when the toothbrush Chase accidentally left at Foreman's apartment turns up neatly bagged in his locker, he wonders if their relationship is really all that solid.

25. Used

It only takes Foreman thirty minutes to realize that Chase is being so uncharacteristically hands-on with him to make a brunet at the other end of the club jealous. It only takes him thirty seconds to leave Chase stranded there, with a disgusted sigh.

26. Punctual

Chase was usually on time in the morning, so when he strolled in twenty minutes late, in last night's clothes, Foreman excuses himself and breaks a mirror in the bathroom.

27. Dare

Foreman felt Chase's eyes on him when he returns, a bandage around his knuckles. And while the blond goes a little paler his eyes still issue a challenge: "I dare you to ask me what I did last night. I dare you to care that much."

28. Shard

Chase felt brittle around Foreman each time they brushed by one another at work, when Chase followed Foreman home at the end of the day out of habit, and when Foreman pretended nothing was wrong as he kissed Chase goodnight at the door, although he was squeezing his fists so tightly, his wound had reopened.

29. Autopsy

Foreman had taken cool-headed to a whole new level, and Chase literally wanted to stomp his foot in frustration. He was certain if someone cut Foreman open, ice would pour out.

30. Demons

Foreman woke up in a cold sweat, and arrived at work ready to apologize to Chase and set things back to normal. But when Chase refused to speak to him, guilt turned to fury, and by lunchtime, Foreman was ready to end this.

31. Sordid

The broom closet seemed like the best idea at the time, and Chase was on his knees half of his own volition, and fully of Foreman's force, willingly accepting penance for his own actions. But then Foreman pulled back and painted his hair and face in streaks of white and left him there, shocked.

32. Poker

When Chase returned, face pale and clean, Foreman was already feeling guilty about what he'd done. He tried to catch Chase's eyes, but the blond was entirely inscrutable. Even so, it was clear Chase had folded out of this game.

33. Leaving

Things were different this breakup. This time around there was more bitterness, more blame, and Foreman briefly considers transferring before deciding against it because he won't give Chase the satisfaction… Not because he couldn't leave.

34. Sarcasm

Foreman had always possessed a biting sense of sarcasm, rivaled only by House. So when Chase snaps back at him, during a diagnosis, and even House lets out a low whistle of appreciation at the seething, well-timed hatred Foreman feels a stab of something beyond professional humiliation.

35. Alien

House knows something serious is happening between his fellows, so he takes every opportunity to send them out together. Today, they're 'investigating' a half-derelict house… during 'the storm of the bloody century'. Foreman grabs Chase's rain-slicked hands to pull him through the window, and the touch is alien and comforting and painful all at once.

36. Blackout

Chase is halfway down the staircase, while Foreman waits in the foyer, when a bolt of lightning strikes nearby, plunging them into darkness with a bang. Foreman catches Chase before he's finished shouting at his missed footing.

37. Gold

The lights make one more pathetic, flickering attempt at returning, and in that brief flicker Foreman only sees gold hair and wide blue eyes. He doesn't need the light to find the blonds lips.

38. Stair

The staircase creaks and groans in protest, but it can't be heard over choked moans, and desperate grunts.

39. Shirt

Chases' shirt is lost somewhere over the banister, and Foreman's is half-torn but that doesn't matter when pale and dark hands paint a living contrast on their chests.

40. Foreplay

Long after the echo of their earlier exuberance has died away, Foreman finds himself with his head resting on Chase's naked thigh, lounging in the living room of a man who very well might be dying of environmental causes. He doesn't care as he reaches up to trace patterns from Chase's neck to navel.

41. Sanctuary

Foreman and Chase make a mad dash for Foreman's stylish yet sensible car, and try not to touch so much that they'll crash on the drive to Foreman's apartment. Chase is confused when Foreman makes a quick stop at a gas station, but doesn't think too much of it until hours of love-making later, when he stumbles into the bathroom to find a still-packaged toothbrush resting in a cup on the sink, by Foreman's.

42. Charm

Chase makes breakfast, even after Foreman begs him not to (on his knees, kissing and nipping at smooth hips). Later, when he's poking at his burnt oatmeal (and how is that even possible when it's instant?), and Chase is pouring burnt coffee in an undershirt and boxers, Foreman admits there's a certain charm to this whole 'next level' business.

43. Treatment

Foreman's much earlier suspicions are confirmed when House confesses to knowing the patient's problem wasn't environmental and surreptitiously slips Foreman a bill for 'relationship treatment'; he only shells out a couple of twenties and leaves them on his boss's desk.

44. Detective

When Tritter storms into their lives and targets Chase because of the Vogler incident, Foreman is ashamed to realize he's afraid the blond might talk. When it blows over, Foreman deduces it would be in everyone's best interest if he never says a word about his doubt.

45. Snow

When the snow comes again, Chase laughs that he's from Australia, and Foreman's the one bitching about the cold. Foreman retaliates by chasing his lover around with a fistful of snow meant for Chase's back.

46. Proposition

"I'm thinking you should move in." Foreman whispers against Chase's back and he's grateful that the Aussie keeps pretending to be asleep.

47. Fence

When Cameron begins to flirt with Chase, needing a temporary itch scratched, the male fellow realizes that the grass 'may' be greener on the other side... But it's WAY too high maintenance to be worth it.

48. Wicked

Foreman couldn't say what evilness overtook him when he pulled Chase onto his lap in the office as Cameron rounded the corner. It was likely the same wickedness that caused him to grip blonde hair so he could mark Chase's neck and let Cameron hear how content the blond was.

49. Resume

When Foreman came up for air, House was sitting across from them, with an expression nearly as glazed as Chase's, phone aimed at them (no doubt set to video record). "Don't mind me." he prompted with a 'continue' gesture.

50. Fight

It had been a wholly disastrous day. The patient died, and House had threatened to fire all his fellows. But Foreman wasn't one to put aside a plan for something like death and unemployment. Even when Chase had started bickering about how Foreman didn't put as much stock in their relationship as he did, Foreman rolled with it, shouting "Well maybe you should just fucking marry me!"

He'd pulled out the handsome, yet simple ring and brandished it like a weapon. "Maybe I will then, asshole!"

FIN

A/N: The last prompt took me the longest to get around to finishing. I don't want to estimate 'how' long (because it might well be in the 'years' category, but if it doesn't seem to sit right, it's because of the vast time difference between 50, and most of the rest.

Hope you enjoyed!

Please let me know what you thought. ^_^


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